(no subject)
so...big things have occured lately. for our intro to aerospace class, we have to build a blimp out of balsa wood, motors, and balloons. my group's design was three balloons in a row attached to a long beam of balsa wood with zipties. a motor and propeller were on the bottom for lift. two motors were on each end of a crossbeam which we placed on a servo just above the lift motor. the servo is designed to allow rotation of parts. we used the one on the beam to rotate the beam for turning and we used them on the outer motors too. the outer motors could rotate independently up and down for lift, and side to side for additional turning.
my group met on monday to give our preliminary report to the TA. after we finished that, we were allowed to start construction of the blimp frame. i didn't have any free time until thursday to work, but the team met wednesday night to start building. i went in on thursday and saw that the guys built practically everything on wednesday.
the guys were really relaxed and cool-headed compared to everyone else. we were probably a day ahead of everyone else, despite working for the same amount of time. our frame was complete and the wiring all hooked up. we got the TA to check our scheme and he gave us the go-ahead for testing the motors with a battery. just as we hooked up the stuff, other groups crowded around to inspect the first model in action. we started up the the motors...and nothing happened.
we suspected that our scheme drew too much power from the battery. the problem is easily fixed with programming on the controller. we ignored it and continued testing by only plugging in three components. we plugged in the servos on the outer motors used for turning and thrust. at first they worked perfectly, the servos rotated up and down, both independently and in sync. then we went to start the propellers for thrust.
enter disaster stage left.
the motor on the right stalls dead and the motor on the left goes to full power. the crossbeam rotated with insane torque. it snapped in half, broke the vertical support it was on, broke the surrounding vertical supports, twisted the entire frame off of the table it was on to my lap. i caught the crossbeam with disbelief. the entire lab awed in the same shared shock at the catastrophe that was our frame. the only thing that survived was the bottom of the frame which only tipped over. we had to take that apart to restart though. the professor immediately took photos of the failure.
things could be better.
in contrast to academics, our football team is amazing this year. we've pulled out an 8-1 record by winning by less than 5 points in several of those games. tomorrow we play at nc st.
i think we've won enough games to get to a bowl game too. good luck tomorrow guys. and to meredith too.
Jason
my group met on monday to give our preliminary report to the TA. after we finished that, we were allowed to start construction of the blimp frame. i didn't have any free time until thursday to work, but the team met wednesday night to start building. i went in on thursday and saw that the guys built practically everything on wednesday.
the guys were really relaxed and cool-headed compared to everyone else. we were probably a day ahead of everyone else, despite working for the same amount of time. our frame was complete and the wiring all hooked up. we got the TA to check our scheme and he gave us the go-ahead for testing the motors with a battery. just as we hooked up the stuff, other groups crowded around to inspect the first model in action. we started up the the motors...and nothing happened.
we suspected that our scheme drew too much power from the battery. the problem is easily fixed with programming on the controller. we ignored it and continued testing by only plugging in three components. we plugged in the servos on the outer motors used for turning and thrust. at first they worked perfectly, the servos rotated up and down, both independently and in sync. then we went to start the propellers for thrust.
enter disaster stage left.
the motor on the right stalls dead and the motor on the left goes to full power. the crossbeam rotated with insane torque. it snapped in half, broke the vertical support it was on, broke the surrounding vertical supports, twisted the entire frame off of the table it was on to my lap. i caught the crossbeam with disbelief. the entire lab awed in the same shared shock at the catastrophe that was our frame. the only thing that survived was the bottom of the frame which only tipped over. we had to take that apart to restart though. the professor immediately took photos of the failure.
things could be better.
in contrast to academics, our football team is amazing this year. we've pulled out an 8-1 record by winning by less than 5 points in several of those games. tomorrow we play at nc st.
i think we've won enough games to get to a bowl game too. good luck tomorrow guys. and to meredith too.
Jason